by Zoe Arden
"Mayor—" Colt started to say, but Hadley cut him off.
"This isn't a choice, Detective Hudson. I've already spoken to Dean Lampton. I'm in charge of this island now, and you will investigate what I tell you to investigate. Right now, that does not include your escaped assassin."
"But then, what do you want us to do?" Colt asked. "Just let him go?"
"This is a delicate time for Heavenly Haven," Hadley said. "What I want is for us to let the little things go so that we can focus on the big picture."
"Letting the assassin go isn't a little thing," I said.
Colt shot me a look.
"I want our two towns to feel safe. They can't do that if there's an assassin running loose," Hadley said.
"Precisely our point," said Colt.
Hadley went on as if she hadn't heard him,
"Therefore, I will make the announcement later today that he's been caught and killed. You will not contradict me, you will not go against my orders and search for him, or I will have you both replaced. Is that understood?"
Sheriff Knoxx and Colt nodded, too dumbfounded to say anything.
"And you," Hadley said, rounding on me, "will say nothing about this to anyone. Got it?"
I nodded. We watched her walk out the door, wondering what had gotten into her.
"Are you guys really going to stop looking for Al?" I asked.
"Of course not," said Sheriff Knoxx at once.
Colt nodded his agreement.
"We just need a new plan. A better plan."
"And a way to make sure the mayor doesn't find out," Sheriff Knoxx added.
I left them alone to get to work, but I had an uneasy feeling I couldn't shake. Hadley's order didn't make sense. Either she was being threatened, or... I tried to push the thought from my head but it wouldn't go.
After we closed for the night, it was still there. I lay in bed for an hour, still thinking about it, before finally deciding to get up and do something. I wasn't scared of Hadley Miner. If I was right, she should be scared of me.
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CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
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Eleanor's car hadn't given me any problems since the last time it broke down at Whisper Crossing. I was pretty sure that hadn't been an accident, but I'd been reluctant to tell that to anyone. I didn't want Colt or my dad freaking out, thinking that someone had hexed Eleanor's car.
I didn't tell anyone I was leaving. It wasn't quite midnight yet. Eleanor, Trixie, and my dad were all asleep. I quietly slipped out of the house, got into Eleanor's car, and made my way to Mistmoor Point.
Hadley had begun talking about building a house in Whisper Crossing since it was the midway point between our two towns. She thought that having her house and office on what was considered neutral territory might help to ease bad feelings on both sides. I actually thought that was a good idea. Whisper Crossing was about as neutral as you could get on Heavenly Haven, aside from the ferry docks and maybe Beggars Forest, where the goblins reigned.
She hadn't started the house yet, though. She was still in her old one. I pulled up to Hadley's street and parked my car. One good thing about living on a small island was that places were easy to find, even if you didn't know where they were. I'd simply texted Lucy, asking her where Hadley's home was. She had texted me back with an address. She'd asked me why I wanted to know, but I told her I'd explain later. I knew that wouldn't be enough to satisfy her, in fact, she was probably burning up with curiosity right now. But she would just have to wait. I didn't have time for details at the moment.
I parked a block away so Hadley wouldn't see me or hear my car and made my way toward her house. I stuck to the sides of her neighbors’ houses and hid behind bushes, trying to make sure I stayed out of sight. When I finally got to her house, I very carefully, very quietly, approached a side window and looked in.
My knees began to jitter. I had to take a deep breath to calm my nerves and stop my hands from shaking, too. I couldn't see a thing. It was dark inside the house except for a sliver of light, which seemed to be coming from the kitchen. I tried listening, hoping to hear something that might tell me what she was up to, but the house was silent.
"Warthogs," I muttered quietly. Maybe I'd been wrong.
The idea that had been rolling around in my head was that Hadley Miner, first ever Mayor of Heavenly Haven, was somehow responsible for the assassins and murders that had been taking place during this election. I knew it was crazy, but there was something seriously wrong with the way she had threatened Sheriff Knoxx and Colt if they didn't stop investigating Al.
Suddenly, a light flicked on in Hadley's backyard. I held my breath and crept closer. There was a large wooden fence that surrounded Hadley's yard. I couldn't see anything over it; it was too tall. There was a large rock at the edge of Hadley's lawn, part of her front garden. I rolled it over to the fence and used it as a step stool. I managed to get one leg over then used a float charm to lift me another foot. I sneezed in the middle of it though and broke my concentration, falling the rest of the way. At least I landed on the other side of the fence. I would have hated it if I'd had to climb the fence all over again.
I stuck close to the side of the house, hiding in the shadows. Hadley's house was bigger than I would have imagined. It felt secluded despite the fact she had neighbors on both sides. You couldn't even see those houses over the twelve-foot fence.
I heard the door to her backyard open followed by a low grunt. I stood perfectly still, listening. It sounded like someone was dragging something across the lawn. I peered around the edge of the house. The light was just bright enough to illuminate Hadley's form. Her hair was down. It swung from side to side as she yanked on a large, rolled-up blanket, dragging it across the yard.
She finally got it to where she wanted it and dropped it, wiping her hands on her shirt before going back inside and shutting the door. I stared at the blanket. She'd left it in the very back of her lawn by a shed. I had to know what she was up to. What was in that blanket?
I took a breath and ran for it. The yard was wide open, and it took all of my strength not to stop and go back, I felt so exposed. I was sure that at any second I'd turn around and she'd be standing there. I made it to the blanket, panting. I could see now that it wasn't just a blanket; something was rolled up inside it. I lifted the top of the fabric and had to stifle the scream that tried to rise in my throat.
Rolled up inside the blanket was Al. He was dead.
"Ava?" a voice said. I looked up to see Hadley standing there with a shovel. My worst fear had just come true. I didn't stand around to ask questions. I ran.
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CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
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I cast a quick float charm and managed to jump over the back of Hadley's fence without falling out of midair this time. Except what did happen was possibly worse. There was a cluster of trees just standing there. I jumped smack into them and felt the bark scrape my face. Then I sank slowly to the ground.
"Ava!" Hadley screamed, still chasing me. She wasn't far behind. I had to hurry. I forced myself back on my feet and took off.
Hadley's neighborhood was deceiving. There were other houses around, yes, but there were also great masses of forested space with no sign of life other than the wildlife that lived there. But even those were deceptive. It wasn't one great forest; it was pieces of forest. It had been trimmed away and tailored to fit the houses around it.
I ran into one of these pockets of forest and sprinted toward the other side. I could see a house there. Its back light was on. Maybe if I could get to it, I could get help. I dug my heels into the ground and ran twice as fast.
"Help!" I screamed. "Help!" I don't know where I got the breath to yell like that. Too bad no one answered. The
house was just ten yards away from me. Five... four... three... two... I stopped at the edge of the lawn. There was a For Sale sign sitting in the middle of it. The house was empty.
"Warthogs!" I cried.
I thought about trying the back door anyway. Maybe it was open. This house was on a corner lot on a part of land that hadn't finished getting developed yet. There was no one across from them, no one on the other side, just more forest.
I turned back around, deciding to go back the way I'd come. If I could make it to my car, I could get away. I'd left my darn cell phone inside the car, too. I was acting like the dumb girl in a bad horror movie. Not the girl who gets away, the girl who gets killed in scene one. Why hadn't I tried running to my car to begin with? I could have made it. Probably. Float charms didn't seem to be my specialty.
I dug into my pocket, searching for my keys. I felt the hard, cold metal. My fingers clasped around it. I ran smack into Hadley and dropped them.
"Ouch!" Hadley cried.
We bounced off each other like rubber bands, or maybe more like bowling balls. It was more of a collision than an actual bounce.
"Ava! Stop!" Hadley yelled as I searched frantically for my fallen car keys. "Let me explain!"
"You killed Al. You hired the assassins. There's nothing else to explain."
Hadley let out a frustrated cry. "That's so like you, like everyone in our towns. All you see is the small picture, never the big one."
"What could possibly be the big picture?" I asked, mystified. I had no idea what she was talking about.
"Heavenly Haven. The power that goes with it."
"What power? We're a small island, Hadley. There's no power here. It's not like you're the head of the Council on Magic and Human Affairs or even the Witch's Council."
"Not yet," said Hadley, "but I could be. Dean Lampton is getting older. He can't be around forever. If I do well running Heavenly Haven, why shouldn't I take over for him one day?"
"That's what this is all about?" I asked, disappointed. "Power? I was hoping it was something more original. Why hire the assassins? Why not just kill everyone yourself?"
"I didn't want all those murders leading back to me. I'm not crazy, Ava, I just like being in control."
"Why'd you kill Al and those other two assassins?"
"Because I didn't need them anymore. Their job was done. I wasn't about to pay them, and I couldn't leave them. They were loose ends. Loose ends are never good when you're doing something illegal. That's why I went down to your bakery today. I'd already found those two tracking devices on Al. They were so obvious. I just needed to make sure there weren't more that I'd missed."
I shook my head. Hadley was nuts.
"Come on," Hadley said. "Make it easy on yourself. I don't want to hurt you."
"Aren't you planning to kill me?"
Hadley shrugged. "Yes, but I don't have to make it painful. I can make it fast and painless like I did with Al. I just shot a death curse at him when he met me at Whisper Crossing, then shoved him into my car when he collapsed. He never even knew what happened."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," I told her.
Hadley pulled a supercharged wand from her pocket and aimed it at me. Witches didn't need wands, but the supercharged wands were something different, something special.
"Where did you get that?" I asked her. "I thought only COMHA agents were supposed to have those."
"Oh, well, you'd be surprised what you find hiding in people's closets. I found this in Wilma's."
"Wilma's?"
"Yeah. When I found out that she and Thaddeus Black knew each other, I figured that she'd have some special magical items laying around, so I ransacked her place one night while she was out."
"Wait, you did that? I thought she faked that burglary."
"Faked it? Well, that was your mistake."
I suddenly felt terrible. Poor Wilma. She'd lied about a lot of things, yes, but not that. I hadn't even listened to her, just cast assumptions.
Hadley pointed the wand at me and muttered an incantation I couldn't hear. Ropes shot out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around my wrists.
"There we go," she said. "That's so much better. Now you can't get away from me again."
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
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The inside of Hadley Miner's house was nice. Elegant, some might say. It gave no indication of the crazy person lurking just below the surface.
It wasn't a huge place, but Hadley had done it up right. Two stories with a finished basement. The stairs to the top floor were long and winding, a shorter version of something you'd see in an old Hollywood movie. The carpet that covered them was a rich red, almost maroon. The walls were painted to perfection, no brush marks left behind or holes that had been missed.
In the living room, where I sat tied to a chair, the walls were a deep cream color except for one accent wall that was the same shade of red as the carpet. A vintage crystal chandelier hung high above a mahogany table. I think it was Victorian.
I sat waiting for Hadley to return from the kitchen, certain she'd gone to get a knife to kill me. That was always what happened in horror movies, wasn't it? Frankly, I didn't know what she was waiting for. It's not like she was the type of person to have any reservations about killing people. She'd clearly demonstrated that already. She'd killed not just one but two assassins and had been responsible for the murder of Thaddeus Black, as well as several other attempted murders.
When Hadley returned holding a glass of iced tea, I had to blink to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
"Where's the knife?" I asked her.
"What knife?"
"The one you're going to kill me with."
She looked at me funny and said, "I'm not going to kill you with a knife. That would be much too messy, and I don't do mess. Never have."
I breathed a sigh of relief until she moved toward me.
"Here, drink this," she said, holding the iced tea glass to my mouth.
"Why? What is it?" I asked, shaking my head, trying to get the glass away from me.
"Iced tea."
"Iced tea and what?"
"And ice cubes," Hadley said.
"What kind of poison did you put in there?"
She sighed. "There's no poison in it, Ava. I just thought you might be thirsty. You were running really fast out there."
When I still shook the glass off, she let out an exasperated laugh and took a sip herself. "See? Would I drink it if it was poisoned?"
My throat was more than parched but I wasn't about to drink anything Hadley offered me, even if she did drink it herself. For all I knew, it was poisoned to the hilt and she'd already taken an antidote. She said she didn't like mess. Getting me to drink poison without putting up a struggle would be as mess-free as you could get.
I struggled against the ropes around my wrists, which she'd also tied to the chair, and found the knot in them completely unbreakable. There was no give in the ropes whatsoever. She must have enchanted them or something to make them extra strong. She clearly had no intention of letting me go. What was she doing, anyway? Stalling? Toying with me?
"What are you waiting for?" I asked her. "Why don't you just kill me already?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I questioned the intelligence of saying them. I didn't need to egg her on.
Hadley set the iced tea on a coaster on her coffee table. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to kill you. That you might listen to me, hear me out."
"Hear you out?" I laughed. "You mean, you want me to tell you that it's okay you killed Thaddeus? It's okay you hired assassins? You tried to kill my aunt!"
"No, I told Greg not to kill Eleanor, only to scare her, but would he listen? No. He tried to hurt her, and that was unacceptable. That's just one of many reasons I had to take care of him. I was doing your family a favor by killing him."
"Thaddeus was no good. He acted like a curse remover, had all the right equipment, but he'd never removed even a half-curse in his life."
Karla Louis’ words came back to me. She'd said the exact same thing when we were sitting in Sweetland Jail.
"So, why not just rat him out? Expose him? Why'd you have to kill him?"
"Because I needed people to be scared. That's the only way that our two towns and the councils would agree to have one mayor. They had to be absolutely petrified. Otherwise, it would never work."
"What if you hadn't won? What if it had been someone else?"
Hadley bit her lip. "I knew I would win. I made sure of it, just like Thaddeus made sure he'd beat Tazzie. She should have won, you know."
"Are you saying you rigged the election? That those rumors about Thaddeus rigging his were true, too?"
"Yes." It was a clear, simple answer that sent a chill up my spine.
"How?" I asked.
"One of the assassins I hired knew some people who could fix the election for me."
"How many assassins did you hire?" It sounded like she had a whole army.
Hadley opened her mouth but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps from the kitchen. She turned toward them. "Hello?" she called out.
"Help!" I screamed, not waiting to see who it was. Hadley shot me an irritated look.
A man appeared, dressed all in black. Everything about him was dark, from his hair to his aura. He smiled when he saw us. "Well," he said.